NDT Simulator & Practical NDT Training in New Brunswick

Atlantis built the first-ever online practical NDT simulation portal for practice and hands-on experience, and New Brunswick's heavy industry gives it plenty to work with. The Atlantis Practical NDT simulator is an immersive, 3D, game-like platform that runs in a browser or app. Technicians enter a virtual oil and gas site, storage tank, welding workshop, NDT lab or aircraft hangar, pick a job, set up the technique and get a score as soon as they finish. New Brunswick's NDT work is concentrated but intense. Saint John is home to Canada's largest oil refinery, an LNG import terminal, a deep-water port with major crude and product terminals, and pulp, paper and tissue mills. West of the city, on the Bay of Fundy, sits Point Lepreau, the only nuclear generating station in Atlantic Canada. The Saint John River carries hydroelectric stations including Mactaquac, the province's largest. Belledune on the north shore has a port and a generating station, and forestry mills operate across the province. Refinery turnarounds, nuclear outages and mill shutdowns draw large inspection crews in short windows. Practical NDT lets New Brunswick technicians arrive at those windows ready, at any level from first-week trainee to working Level III, without booking lab time or using up specimens.

This is the New Brunswick hub for Practical NDT. It maps where the province's NDT work happens, how the simulator's environments and methods fit it, the regulators that apply, and what a simulator can and cannot do. For a walkthrough tailored to your crew, request a Practical NDT demo for New Brunswick.

New Brunswick's NDT workforce and where the work is

New Brunswick's inspection work clusters in a handful of places: Saint John and the Fundy coast, the Saint John River valley, the north shore, and the Moncton and Fredericton areas. Each has a different equipment mix.

Saint John: refining and energy. The refinery in east Saint John is the largest in Canada by capacity and supplies fuel across Atlantic Canada and to the US Northeast. A refinery of that size has thousands of pressure vessels, heat exchangers, fired heaters and piping circuits, large tank farms, and a marine terminal for crude and products. Turnarounds bring in hundreds of contract workers, including inspection crews running UT thickness surveys, PAUT corrosion mapping, exchanger tube inspection, alloy verification, weld inspection on repairs and tank inspection. Nearby, the Canaport area hosts a deep-water crude receiving terminal and an LNG regasification terminal, adding cryogenic and marine equipment to the inspection load.

Saint John: port and mills. Port Saint John handles bulk liquids, containers, potash and forest products. Pulp, paper and tissue mills in and around the city run boilers, digesters, pressure vessels and chemical recovery equipment, which need regular thickness surveys and weld inspection. Fabrication and industrial service companies support all of these.

Point Lepreau. Point Lepreau Generating Station is a CANDU 6 reactor on the Bay of Fundy. Nuclear inspection in Canada follows CSA N285 series standards, including periodic inspection of pressure-retaining systems and components, with feeder pipes, steam generators, heat exchangers and balance-of-plant piping all subject to detailed inspection programmes during planned outages. Nuclear NDT relies heavily on qualified UT, PAUT, eddy current of tubes and visual examination, delivered under strict procedures.

The Saint John River valley. Mactaquac, upstream of Fredericton, is the province's largest hydroelectric station, with other stations along the river. Hydro inspection involves penstocks, turbines, gates and hoists, large structural welds and concrete-embedded steel. Fredericton itself is the provincial capital and a centre for government, engineering and research.

The north shore and the forest belt. Belledune has a deep-water port and a generating station. Pulp, paper, lumber and panel mills operate around Edmundston, Miramichi, Bathurst and elsewhere, and base-metal mining has historically been important in the Bathurst area. Mills and power stations need boiler-tube inspection, thickness surveys and weld inspection during shutdowns.

Moncton and the southeast. Greater Moncton is a logistics, distribution and manufacturing hub with an international airport and aviation training and maintenance activity. Manufacturing, food processing and transport equipment add fabrication and pressure-equipment inspection. Transmission pipelines that carry natural gas through the province pass through southern New Brunswick.

Practical NDT by city in New Brunswick

Saint John has its own Practical NDT page and an ASNT training page. The table links it and maps New Brunswick's other main work centres to the environments and methods that fit.

Saint John. For Saint John technicians the Oil & Gas Site, with 73 jobs, is the heart of the library. Refinery turnarounds call for IRIS on exchanger tubes, PMI on alloy circuits, UT and PAUT corrosion mapping on piping and vessels, and TOFD on pressure welds. The Storage Tank environment covers the shell thickness and MFL floor screening work found at refinery tank farms and the crude terminal. Mill technicians also benefit from thickness and weld practice. See Practical NDT Saint John and NDT training in Saint John.

Point Lepreau. Nuclear inspection is procedure-driven and qualification-heavy. The simulator cannot reproduce plant-specific qualified techniques, but it can build and refresh the underlying UT, PAUT and eddy current tube skills that outage technicians rely on, and help a Level III check technique discipline before an outage.

Fredericton and the river valley. Hydro station inspection centres on thick structural and pressure welds and large mechanical components. UT, PAUT and MT in the Welding Workshop and NDT Lab match that work.

Moncton. Manufacturing and fabrication bring weld inspection, while aviation activity around the airport links to the Aircraft Hangar for eddy current and penetrant practice. Pipeline work in the southeast adds RT and UT of girth welds.

Belledune, Bathurst, Miramichi and Edmundston. Mill and power-station shutdowns bring boiler-tube inspection, digester and tank thickness surveys and structural weld checks. IRIS, UT thickness, MT and PT are the core practice.

Environments and methods that match New Brunswick work

Practical NDT has five environments, twelve methods and 33 guided lessons. In New Brunswick the balance tilts strongly toward process-plant and tank work because of Saint John's refinery and terminals, with mills, power and nuclear adding tube and weld inspection.

Oil & Gas Site (73 jobs). Weld, corrosion, tube and screening practice in a process plant: contact UT and PAUT corrosion mapping, TOFD weld sizing, IRIS internal rotary UT on exchanger and boiler tubes, LRUT guided-wave screening of long pipe runs, and PMI alloy verification. This is the closest match to refinery turnaround work and to mill and power-plant outages.

Storage Tank. UT shell thickness surveys and MFL floor screening on a full-size tank. Refinery tank farms, crude and product terminals at Saint John, and fuel storage across the province make this an everyday skill.

Welding Workshop (52 jobs). Weld coupons and fabrication joints for RT interpretation, UT and PAUT sizing, TOFD, MT and VT, matching fabrication shops, repair welding during turnarounds, hydro station welds and pipeline work.

NDT Lab (52 jobs). Bench specimens and reference blocks for calibration, probe handling and fundamentals. New trainees start here and experienced technicians use it to rehearse before a practical examination under any scheme.

Aircraft Hangar (54 jobs). Airframe and component jobs for aviation maintenance around Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John airports: eddy current, penetrant, UT and VT.

Across the twelve methods, New Brunswick technicians lean most on UT, PAUT, IRIS and PMI for refinery and plant work, MFL for tank floors, ET for heat-exchanger and steam-generator tubing and aviation, and MT, PT and VT for structural and mill inspection.

Regulators and requirements New Brunswick technicians meet

Short answer: NDT personnel certification is national, nuclear facilities and radiography sources are regulated federally by the CNSC, and boilers and pressure vessels are regulated by the province. Practical NDT is practice for any scheme and replaces none of them.

National NDT certification. Canada's national NDT personnel certification scheme is based on CAN/CGSB-48.9712, the Canadian adoption of ISO 9712, and New Brunswick employers commonly expect technicians to hold certification under it. The Canadian General Standards Board, which published the standard, closed on 1 April 2026; Natural Resources Canada's NDT Certification Body has said it continues to operate and the standard remains valid, but confirm the current certification body and arrangements before planning a route. Some employers, especially those working for US-owned operators or to US codes, also use ASNT SNT-TC-1A written practices. This is market context only. Atlantis training aligns with ASNT SNT-TC-1A and Atlantis does not train toward, certify or administer the CGSB/ISO 9712 scheme.

Nuclear. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) licenses Point Lepreau, and inspection of its pressure-retaining systems follows the CSA N285 series, including periodic inspection requirements. Nuclear NDT personnel and procedures are qualified to the licensee's programme. Practical NDT is not part of any nuclear qualification.

Radiation safety. The CNSC also licenses radioactive sources used in industrial radiography, and only a CNSC-certified exposure device operator, or a trainee under direct supervision, may operate a gamma exposure device. Practical NDT's RT jobs involve no radiation and do not count toward that certification.

Pressure equipment. Boilers, pressure vessels and pressure piping in New Brunswick are regulated by the province's Technical Inspection Services, which requires inspection of newly installed or modified equipment before it enters service and periodic in-service inspection, with certificates of inspection to operate. CSA B51, ASME Section V and VIII, ASME B31.3 and, for in-service work, API 510, 570 and 653 are commonly referenced.

Pipelines and marine. Interprovincial and international pipelines fall under the Canada Energy Regulator, with CSA Z662 as the core standard. Marine terminals and vessels follow Transport Canada and classification society requirements.

For trainees, working technicians and Level IIIs in New Brunswick

New trainees. Trainees in New Brunswick often come from mill, refinery or trades backgrounds, and the gap is hands-on hours before their first turnaround. Guided fundamentals let them repeat calibration, scanning, PAUT setup and indication interpretation with instant feedback. It is useful NDT practical exam preparation, provided everyone understands the real exam is done on real specimens.

Working technicians. New Brunswick's work arrives in bursts: a refinery turnaround, a nuclear outage, a mill shutdown. Between them, technicians may not touch a particular method for months. Rare-defect refreshers between assignments, on things like exchanger tube pitting and wall loss, stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen damage indications, or weld lack of fusion, help them arrive ready rather than relearning on the client's equipment.

Level IIIs and team leads. Level IIIs can build and assign scenario sets, benchmark crews objectively and find coverage gaps before a campaign. Before a turnaround that brings in contract technicians from across Atlantic Canada and beyond, a consistent scenario set gives a fair, like-for-like picture of who is ready for IRIS, PAUT or tank work.

Practice vs certification

Practical NDT is a practice and readiness tool. It is not a certification. It does not grant a level under CAN/CGSB-48.9712, ASNT SNT-TC-1A or an employer's written practice, it is not part of any CSA N285 or nuclear qualification, and it does not replace the practical examination on real specimens these schemes require. It does not satisfy CNSC exposure device operator requirements. It gives technicians more realistic repetition before exams and between jobs, alongside formal NDT training and supervised experience. The formal practical exam remains the step that counts.

Turnarounds, outages and short windows: why New Brunswick crews use virtual NDT training

New Brunswick's biggest inspection jobs happen in short, expensive windows. Every day a refinery unit, a reactor or a mill line is down costs money, so owners want crews that are productive from the first shift. Yet the technicians who staff those windows often spend the months in between on different work, or come in from other provinces with different habits.

A browser-based NDT simulator closes some of that gap. Crews can rehearse IRIS on tube bundles, PAUT corrosion mapping and tank floor MFL screening before mobilisation. Supervisors can see scores rather than rely on self-reported experience. Level IIIs can push the same scenario set to every incoming technician. Because it runs on a laptop or tablet, technicians can practise at home, in a hotel during mobilisation, or in the site trailer. It does not replace time on real equipment or the formal qualifications a refinery or nuclear plant requires, but it makes the first hours on site more productive.

Bring Practical NDT to your New Brunswick team

Atlantis built the first-ever online practical NDT simulation portal for practice and hands-on experience. The scenario library was designed by Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III and founder of Atlantis NDT, who also leads Atlantis training. Whether you run a refinery turnaround inspection team in Saint John, a mill maintenance group on the north shore, a fabrication shop in Moncton, or an outage contractor, rollout starts with a short demo and a conversation about which environments and methods fit your work. Technicians then get access by browser or app.

Pricing is quote on request; the offer is affordable, accessible and fully customizable. Book a New Brunswick Practical NDT demo, read the Practical NDT overview, or write to info@atlantisndt.com.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an NDT simulator available in New Brunswick?

Yes. The Atlantis Practical NDT simulator runs in a browser or app, so it works in Saint John, Moncton, Fredericton and anywhere else in the province with a connection. There is no physical centre; delivery is online.

Is it useful for refinery turnaround inspection in Saint John?

Yes for core skills. The Oil & Gas Site has 73 jobs covering UT and PAUT corrosion mapping, TOFD, IRIS, LRUT and PMI, and the Storage Tank environment covers shell thickness and MFL floor screening.

Can it be used for nuclear outage preparation?

It can refresh underlying UT, PAUT and eddy current skills. It is not part of any nuclear qualification, and plant-specific qualified procedures still govern work at Point Lepreau.

Does Practical NDT count toward CGSB (ISO 9712) certification?

No. It is practice only. Certification requires its own training, experience and examinations, including a practical exam on real specimens. Confirm the current certification body before planning.

Does it include radiography?

Yes, as technique and image interpretation practice with no radiation source. It does not count toward CNSC exposure device operator certification.

Which New Brunswick industries is it most useful for?

Refining, crude and LNG terminals, pulp and paper, power generation including hydro and nuclear, fabrication and manufacturing, pipelines and aviation maintenance.

What experience level is it for?

All levels: guided fundamentals for trainees, rare-defect refreshers for working technicians, and scenario building and crew benchmarking for Level IIIs.

Can contractors coming from other provinces use it before mobilisation?

Yes. Access is by browser or app, so a Level III can assign a scenario set to incoming technicians wherever they are.

Does Atlantis offer ASNT training in New Brunswick?

Atlantis training follows ASNT SNT-TC-1A and is delivered online, live-virtual or onsite at the client's facility. See NDT training in Saint John or all training.

How do we start?

Request a demo. We will map the environments to your New Brunswick work and provide a quote on request.

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